Pointing the compass north

Ever since Eric Sevareid and Walter Port canoed 2,250 miles from Minnesota to Hudson Bay in 1930, a trip immortalized in Sevareid’s best-selling book Canoeing with the Cree, the route has been a pinnacle of wilderness canoeing.

In 2005, on the 75th anniversary of the original trip, Scott Miller and Todd Foster received quite a bit of publicity for their own trip. Foster made it almost to Canada before leaving the trip due to wrist problems and was replaced by Matt Lutz. Miller and Lutz arrived at York Factory in late August.

This summer, two groups will attempt the trip. One is made up of two young women from YMCA Camp Menogyn, under the banner of “Hudson Bay Bound,” intending to be the first women to ever do the route. Natalie Warren and Ann Raiho will graduate from St. Olaf’s College on May 29 and depart Fort Snelling for points north just three days later.

A story in the Northfield News says they’re doing it to help other girls and young women experience the wilderness like they have:

After a 700-mile, 50-day canoe trip at camp together, the experience shaped the two women. They hope to raise $20,000 through their trip to provide the same kind of adventure opportunities for others.

“It costs something like $6,000 to go on those trips at Menogyn,” Raiho said. “It’s really expensive to go on these trips when the purpose of the camp is to live simply. It’s ironic. We think it’s very important to get kids, especially girls, out in the wilderness to not just experience nature but to get more confident.

On their blog, the paddlers provide more about their trip’s principles:

We were shocked that two women had not replicated this trip. Women have climbed every mountain and crossed every ocean. Women should paddle every river too! By replicating a historically male dominated adventure, we will increase gender equality. Our hope is that women will be able to see equality and claim it with strengthened conviction after the completion of this trip.

While Natalie and Ann will start their trip in St. Paul and paddle up the Minnesota River to the Red River, the Voyageur’s Hudson Bay Expedition will leave from the Gunflint Trail and traverse much of the BWCAW before turning toward Hudson Bay.

The team is made up of four young men: Will Tanner, Andrew Spaeth, Mike Swenson and Adam Maxwell. Their trip will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Voyageurs Canoe Outfitters, where three of the men have worked.

The trip also has a conservation focus. Their mission is “to promote the continued protection of the scenic waterways of Minnesota and Canada through experience, education, and outreach.”

In an e-mail to supporters, team member Will Tanner wrote about the diverse landscape that lies between northern Minnesota and the edge of the Arctic:

Our route will take us over rivers and swamps, small lakes and really big ones (Lake Winnipeg). We will be travelling through areas marked by varied land use: government sanctioned wilderness with restricted-access, towns developed around dams for hydro-electricity and paper mills, and places left remote simply by geographic distance.

Both groups are asking for donations. Check out their websites for more information:

• Hudson Bay Bound
• Voyageur’s Hudson Bay Expedition